WHAM! 10 Days in China

by Mike McGranaghan

It’s long been a truism that you haven’t really made it in the music business until you’ve found success in America. Back in the 1980s, a group called WHAM! – consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley – was popular in their native England and desperately wanted to break into the States. To accomplish this, an unlikely plan was formulated. WHAM! would be the first Western pop group ever to perform in communist China. The documentary WHAM! 10 Days in China tells the story of what happened through extraordinary footage and interviews.

Esteemed filmmaker Lindsay Anderson (of This Sporting Life and If… fame) was brought in to make a documentary about this build-up to the two concerts. As it turned out, he was too old-fashioned for WHAM!'s taste, and they were too contemporary for his. It was not a match made in heaven. Anderson's footage was subsequently locked away for decades, just now available via this movie.

Ridgeley is one of multiple people appearing on camera to talk about the strategy behind the China mission, along with the ensuing political complications. A media influx played a crucial role, as everyone knew the concerts would make world news and, consequently, get Americans curious to hear WHAM!’s music. The constant media presence was a mixed blessing for the musicians, though. George Michael is visibly a little better at hiding his disdain for them; Ridgeley feigns politeness, but you can see he’s miserable. That type of footage is among the documentary’s best. It includes a contentious press conference that almost derailed the entire publicity campaign.

Watching the efforts to promote the band in such an unlikely manner provides lots of entertainment. WHAM! 10 Days in China is even better when exploring the impact the band had. Michael and Ridgeley are thrown during their first concert because the audience, who is culturally accustomed to sitting politely during performances, doesn’t groove to the music. At another point, we see a lengthy clip of some Chinese youth listening to the song “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." A cassette tape came with their concert tickets, and their reaction to hearing pop music for the first time is a charming combination of befuddlement and joy. You really come away with an understanding of how sheltered the population was during that era.

Concert footage shows what a strong group WHAM! was and drives home what a loss George Michael’s passing was to the music world. Here, for ninety minutes, we see him at his prime, bursting with energy and pumped for superstardom. WHAM! 10 Days in China will certainly satisfy his fans. Even if you weren’t around for the band’s success, the film is immensely enlightening about the intersection of music and culture.